BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS (AP) -– Palestinians hold mixed expectations that Barack Obama will be able to bring them a state of their own, though both moderates and hard-liners greeted his election with optimistic words.

Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of the Islamic resistance fighters group Hamas, said he hopes Obama will ""open a new page"" with the Muslim world. Ahmed Qureia, the chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel, predicted Obama would press ahead with the negotiations.
Qureia belongs to the moderate Fatah movement, which today rules only the West Bank, one of the two territories Palestinians claim for a future state. The other territory, Gaza, is under Hamas control. The split is seen as a major stumbling block to Palestinians' statehood aspirations.
A 41-year-old Israeli occupation and the violent upheavals that have accompanied it have engendered a great weariness among Palestinians, a majority of whom believe the United States is hopelessly biased against them.
That won't change under Obama, predicted Palestinian analyst Talal Okal.
""When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Jewish lobby will have the upper hand,"" he said.
Even so, Munzir al-Hilw, a 40-year-old supermarket owner in Gaza City, said he hoped the world would improve with Obama as the American president.
""We hope his call for change will turn out to be true,"" he said.